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The Conet Project - Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations [ird059] ()

For more than 30 years the Shortwave radio spectrum has been used by the worlds intelligence agencies to transmit secret messages. These messages are transmitted by hundreds of Numbers Stations.

Shortwave Numbers Stations are a perfect method of anonymous, one way communication. Spies located anywhere in the world can be communicated to by their masters via small, locally available, and unmodified Shortwave receivers. The encryption system used by Numbers Stations, known as a one time pad is unbreakable. Combine this with the fact that it is almost impossible to track down the message recipients once they are inserted into the enemy country, it becomes clear just how powerful the Numbers Station system is.

These stations use very rigid schedules, and transmit in many different languages, employing male and female voices repeating strings of numbers or phonetic letters day and night, all year round.

The voices are of varying pitches and intonation; there is even a German station (The Swedish Rhapsody) that transmits a female child's voice!

One might think that these espionage activities should have wound down considerably since the official end of the cold war, but nothing could be further from the truth. Numbers Stations (and by inference, spies) are as busy as ever, with many new and bizarre stations appearing since the fall of the Berlin wall.

Why is it that in over 30 years, the phenomenon of Numbers Stations has gone almost totally unreported? What are the agencies behind the Numbers Stations, and why are the eastern European stations still on the air? Why does the Czech republic operate a Numbers Station 24 hours a day? How is it that Numbers Stations are allowed to interfere with essential radio services like air traffic control and shipping without having to answer to anybody? Why does the Swedish Rhapsody Numbers Station use a small girls voice?

These are just some of the questions that remain unanswered.

Now you will be able to hear this unique and extraordinary phenomenon for yourself, as Irdial-Discs releases THE CONET PROJECT: the first comprehensive collection of Numbers Stations recordings released to the public.

This Quadruple CD is an important historical reference work for research into this hitherto unreported and unknown field of espionage. The CDs contain 150 recordings spanning the last twenty years; taken from the private archives of dedicated shortwave radio listeners from around the world.

There's more information in the included PDF booklet and via the official site for this 4xCD collection.


This audio is part of the collection: Irdial

Date: 0000-00-00 00:00:00

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Reviewer: Montag11 - - September 23, 2008
Subject: Ongoing Project
I have been interested in "number stations" since I was a kid (I am a child of the cold war). I regularly hear V2a, the Cuban station, loud and clear, usually on schedule. Also M8, which is the morse counterpart to V2a. I have also listened to E3, the Linconlshire Poacher, which evidently left the air recently.

And yes, it's even spookier to hear the transmissions live, alone in my office, at 2:00 am. And that's half the fun!

Reviewer: mary007 - - June 29, 2008
Subject: By gone of the Cold War
These stations were a product of the Cold War when Communism and Capitalism clashed all over the world. Some of the stations would originate at high power transmitters at "headquarters" while others would eminate from some jungle outposts. They were designed so they could not be decoded, much like what we did to the Germans and Japanese during WWII. All in an effort to move spys and small action units. Data was gathered and People died as a result of what these stations said. They are a lot less frequent these days now that the Communists and us are such good "buddies." Some of the stations heard today are Middle Eastern, Israeli, Colombian drug cartel and mainland chinese. Brings back old memories, I love to hear them.

Reviewer: Old Man Medicine - - May 4, 2008
Subject: This is awesome
Leave it on while you sleep. Induce the finest nightmares available.

Reviewer: parkeca - - April 16, 2008
Subject: Wow
This audio is fascinating. Really compelling, weird, and lovely. An awesome archive for the artist.

Reviewer: NicholasWest - - March 27, 2008
Subject: I Just Love This Kind Of Thing
This is incredibly interesting and strange, and at times frightening and disturbing. Thanks to all of you who have made these recordings and archive, and their presentation, possible. Best of the net.

Reviewer: Mr Lansom - - March 3, 2008
Subject: Why Would Espionage Wind Down?
Great sounds...disconcerting...strange...frightening.

Reviewer: emmthreejonny - - October 10, 2007
Subject: Sounds from the Past
Could this be coded radio transmissions used in the past bouncing back and forth the airwaves? If they say we are transmitting radio and TV waves to outer space perhaps there might be a possibility these are old recordings in the early 20th century being picked up.

It's just that everything I hear in numbers stations seem to resemble the past, its nothing familiar in todays airwaves.

Reviewer: mr_loophead - - September 8, 2007
Subject: tcp d3 8 magnetic fields irdial
This audio clip (beginning up to 1:21) belongs to Jean Michel Jarre's 'Jean Michel Jarre in Concert: Houston-Lyon' album.

I keep coming back to this because it's bursing with interestingness.

Reviewer: jllstll - - August 6, 2007
Subject: A story worth hearing
NPR did a *fairly* good story on The Conet Project back in 2004. If you are at all interested in these mysterious recordings it is worth a quick listen.

Y'all are asking the same question about copyright. LISTEN TO THE NPR STORY.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4167689

In general - you cannot make money off of another person's licensed work. That's when you tread in dangerous territory.

Reviewer: NoiseCollector - - July 15, 2007
Subject: This is great
It is a treasure trove of sampling goodness, this is one of the coolest things on here. The story behind it would be a great movie idea, like a Davinci code theme but with some substance and actual recordings.

Reviewer: orangeiscool3984 - - July 11, 2007
Subject: Nice stuff
ALot of these have been used by bands in their songs like wilco and the haters. and such. I think they are in the public domain, so we can all use 'em for our recordsings.

Reviewer: Telephone Toughguy - - July 11, 2007
Subject: Awesome resource
I would be interested in using some of this as source material. What is the licensing status?

Reviewer: Jeff Archer - - July 5, 2007
Subject: Scared
This scares me at night.

Reviewer: augest_west - - May 28, 2007
Subject: wow
how freaky but amazing at the same time, thank you for bringing this to my attention

Reviewer: Kroggy - - April 9, 2007
Subject: Listened to it once
On the FM band in downtown near Moscow, the station had to transmit the Morze code, like this:
"-..-.-"
Looks like the very strange activiy for me, as these station can easily be located.

Reviewer: echoplexus - - March 28, 2007
Subject: Fun!
Very interesting listening, especially late at night with the lights off. KInd of scary to think that secrets are being conveyed right out in the open. Clever,

Reviewer: saturnism - - June 2, 2006
Subject: oriental language
"tcp d2 43 oriental language irdial" sounds like it's in chinese, repeating "I am ZhuHai, I am ZhuHai, I am ZhuHai"... and "Goodbye"

Reviewer: Fritz1 - - May 12, 2006
Subject: More Numbers Stations on the Internet Archive! (Revised from May 9, 2006)
The first time I saw "The Conet Project" was on amazon.com. I was curious to know what kind of short wave radio broadcasts did it contain. I looked up "The Conet Project" on a search engine (Dogpile, if I recall correctly) and discovered MP3 files of ALL the tracks, which means I could listen to "The Conet Project" for FREE ( http://irdial.hyperreal.org/the%20conet%20project). I listened to the MP3 files and noticed how they contained voices of a man, woman, boy or girl speaking a certain language. Some of the tracks contain a little music followed by a voice saying numbers (hence the name "Numbers Stations"). And there are some with Morse code and other such cryptic noises. Not too long after listening to them, I discovered "The Conet Project" on THIS website! As you may know, you could get the PDF of the booklet as well. I wonder if I might, somehow, find one of those mysterious stations being broadcasted using the short wave radio I have in my house. That would be like "Hey! I think I got one! What is he (or she) saying? 'Klatu?'... 'Baraba?'... 'Nitko?'... "

There are more recordings of numbers station here on the Internet Archive. Just enter "number stations" at the search (make sure the word "number" is singluar) and you'll find about 80 of them on the Seism netlable. Also try entering just the word "conet" and you might find more related stuff.

Reviewer: Tov H Rizzia - - April 16, 2006
Subject: Cool and disturbing
Why do these number stations keep operating? Who is using these to do what? What messages are they sending to whom? It is important to keep on top of these, I think. It might prove to be vital someday. And they are pretty cool to listen to. Lincolnshire Poacher is a catchy tune if nothing else. Makes for a good ice cream truck jingle.

Reviewer: gulag picture radio - - March 18, 2006
Subject: gulag picture radio
I was lucky enough to get one of the multi CD sets when it came out, and am thrilled that it's available here on Archive.org.

Sorry if I'm looking in the wrong place, but I can't seem to find what the "legalese" is on this collection. I'd like to do a spoken word piece at an upcoming art performance on number stations using some of these recordings, but I recall a band pinching these recordings and making the Irdial people unhappy.

Does anyone know where things stand now that these are on Archive.org? I wouldn't want to do anything to infringe on the awesome work done to make this collection possible. Thanks for any help!

Reviewer: Spuzz - - February 20, 2006
Subject: What the Bleeps do we know?
YEARS ago, I had a boombox that had an AM and FM station, with 2 cassette players. It also had something called ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂSWÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ and ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂSW2ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ. I am not too sure if my brother pointed these out, or if I found the numbers stations by myself. But anyways, I was instantly intrigued. Who were these strange people? What did they want? Well now I (and YOU!) can relieve those memories with 4 CDÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs (!!!) of material featuring the best of these stations! Listen to the random numbers stations! The crazy music! The people in the shop talking in the background (???) and other wild recordings! This was a total GAS to listen to!

Reviewer: knisterwerk - - November 24, 2005
Subject: Gute Zusammenstellung.
Eine gute Zusammenstellung an verschiedenen Nummernsendungen in sehr guter und verstÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂändlicher QualitÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂät.

Reviewer: Loknar - - October 4, 2005
Subject: The definition of awesome.
See title.

Reviewer: samson - - May 7, 2005
Subject: Hypnotic and haunting...
...Definately worth a long listen.
Thank you to those who put this together!

Reviewer: shamefile - - April 29, 2005
Subject: Mesmerising...
...intriguing, disturbing.

Reviewer: Avatar_BE - - January 28, 2005
Subject: Eerie Sounds on Shortwave Bands.
I Found out about the Conet Project several years ago, and found the files on their website. However, the CD has been re-pressed in a limited amount, and i managed to get a set of originals.

As a Cold War researcher and radio-geek, this stuff just HAS to be in my collection. I remember that when i was a kid, i sometimes heared these strange words inbetween the dit-daa of the CW 'chatters'. Later i found out that it was what we then called 'the enemy'. That made it even more scary to listen to. When in the army, i heared about a batallion, dedicated to interception of those broadcasts. Back then, that was still hush-hush, but now they even have their own website : http://www.898vbdbat.nl/historie.htm

The number stations are still active, but are not so easily found nowadays. Wonder if there'll ever be a second 'Conet Project'. If so, i'll be the first to buy the original, that's for sure !

Reviewer: CompassRose - - November 12, 2004
Subject: Conet Project
A fascinating tour de force of the aural equivalent of crop circles. Akin Fernandez has managed to turn a personal collection obsession into an international phenomenon, and now has thousands of people asking -like him- "What are these stations doing?" Compelling as any mystery associated with human origin but having still no satisfactory explanation, the Conet Project can serve as an aural banquet, acting as a conversation starter, to music meant to accompany psychotic breaks to supplementing the kids' Halloween Haunted House.

Reviewer: dr zzzzz - - September 25, 2004
Subject: fascinating stuff
I am old enough to remember listening to my shortwave radio at night and wondering "what the hell" was going on with these insane numbers stations. I didn't think too much about it as I imagined some need for monotonous repetitive information in an age that antedated the internet and reliable radio communications.

It's interesting to see that the mystery lingers and that some people share my fascination 35 years later.

http://zzzone.net

Reviewer: Simon12rec. - - August 21, 2004
Subject: spooky indeed!
Yeah, spooky might be the right term to describe these artifacts. I listened to those while sitting alone in the computer room at my university at night... wheew!
The history behind this seems to be quite strange and intresting too.
Might also be intresting as basic material to create something new out of it I guess...
Very cool project guys!

Reviewer: RileyJ5 - - February 15, 2004
Subject: Spooky Frequencies
The idea that number stations still exist make these recordings even more interesting. What seem like random strings of numbers and speech are a complicated method of communication. These are historical recordings and should be treasured as such. Different voices speak out long strings of numbers cloaked in varying static and frequency interuption and sometimes you might even catch a small part of a melodie being played over and over again. Who or what is on the other end of the radio? Whay do they do this? Where is it coming from? All questions that make these recordings ver cryptic and very interesting to listen. Thank you Irdial for such a different release.

Reviewer: rjnagle - - February 15, 2004
Subject: Fascinating!
This is a crazy audio idea, but a great example of found recordings. Listen to more than 3 or so at a time, and you'll go crazy, but they're pleasant to listen to, esp the first one Swedish Rhapsody. Lot of them have interesting reverberations and sound effects.